THE AARD OR EARTH WOLF 



Wolf was sent to the museum, or if the body other- 

 wise came into my possession, I always made a 

 point of examining the contents of their stomachs. 

 Although a considerable number were examined, 

 I never in a single instance found anything but the 

 remains of insects of various sorts, a few small 

 lizards, young mice, and rats, and, in others, some 

 traces of what seemed to be carrion. In the 

 stomachs of many of them there was no trace of 

 anything but termites. 



Mr. Cloete, who has done such good service in the 

 cause of Natural History in the past, writes that 

 he examined the stomachs of over fifty Aard Wolves 

 and never found a trace of anything in the way of 

 food, other than that which indicated a purely in- 

 sectivorous diet. He went further and carefully 

 examined the excrement, but such examination 

 only served to confirm his other observations. 

 Sparrman and other authors declare that the con- 

 tents of the stomachs of all the Earth Wolves ex- 

 amined by them contained termites only. These 

 observations made it clear that in those districts 

 which are infested with "White Ants," the Aard 

 Wolf, like the Ant Bear, subsists almost, if not en- 

 tirely, on them. In the parts where termites are 

 scarce or non-existent, a miscellaneous assortment 

 of insects and small soft-bodied creatures consti- 

 tutes the diet of the animal. Apart from the actual 

 examination of the contents of the Manhaar Jakhal's 

 stomach, a glance at the teeth of the animal would 



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